Narcotics Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act 1985: Exploring the Rationale Behind Sentencing Anomalies

Abstract

The Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act,1985 (hereinafter referred to as the “NDPS ACT’) was codified in India with an aim to curb and curtail drug abuse but the central objective was to prevent organized crimes such as terror funding by illicit means such as large scale transport of drugs. The legislature has periodically revised this statute to bring it in conformity with the contemporaneous situations. In 2001, the legislature brought a landmark revision to the NDPS Act by bringing a notification for segregating the offences under different categories – small, intermediate and commercial quantities. Furthermore, the Amending Act 9 of 2001 bifurcated the drug traffickers and the drug consumers therefore, the sentencing structure was revised to mete out punishment in accordance with the crime.